Hi,

With the recent very hot days in Sydney, my mini dahlias have all but
burnt up.
Can I either cut them back or dig up and store bulbs at this time of
year?
I know about pulling them before winter but unsure about mid summer.

Nick.

"Nick Cook" wrote in message
...
Hi,

With the recent very hot days in Sydney, my mini dahlias have all but
burnt up.
Can I either cut them back or dig up and store bulbs at this time of
year?
I know about pulling them before winter but unsure about mid summer.

Nick.

Don't cut them back to the base, just cut them back to a node, as if pruning
the flowers off. The may get new shoots considering it is just from the
heat.
Then leave them to "die back", before digging them up.
They draw the goodness back into the bulbs (or tubers?) for storage over
winter.


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Remove "not" from start of email address to reply

Do you need to dig them up? Our Winters here aren't as cold as in Europe.

"Martin Brown" wrote in message
...
Do you need to dig them up? Our Winters here aren't as cold as in Europe.




It is best to dig them up.
Being tubers they are unlike Tulips, and do not need the cold.

The reason it is good to dig them up is so they don't end up rotting from
too much moisture.
When I worked on the council we had some in the pots at the Nursery that we
used to use for cut flowers at "Town hall".
During the winter season we would simply lay the pots on their side so it
would catch and rain/water. This saved us digging them up.
One other way I have heard of people storing them is pulling them out and
placing in brown paper bags.
Another way is placing them in a pot after digging them from the ground, and
cover them with dry sand, then store not allowing them to get wet.

I only ever had them in pots, so I used the "council" method.
I guess the main thing is to keep them dry.
Don't dig them up until they have died back and the season is over (end of
Autumn? later than Summer anyway).
In the pots you would get little green shoots popping up when they would
come active again. Not sure exactly when this was, but toward the end of
winter.